Eeny-meeny-miny-Fringe

Get Your Fringe On

Keep your options open with a Frequent Fringer Card! Photo by Roman Bartos.

Calling all Fringe bingers and bingers-to-be! Frequent Fringer Cards are now available! Good for four, 10, or 30 shows, Frequent Fringers mean you can keep your options open! The Cards are good for up to two people, with no more than two uses per performance. The best part? You can save up to $180 and 100% of the proceeds from Frequent Fringer Card purchases go directly to the Artists!

Once you purchase your Frequent Fringer Cards, and after tickets go on sale August 8, you can book your show tickets online or in person at the Fringe Box Office (opens September 4)! Or if playing the Fringe by ear is more your thing, you can also use your Frequent Fringer Card at the door. The Cards can be used at any regular Fringe shows but are not valid at special events like the Georgia Straight Fringe-for-All or the Artists’ Cabaret. Cardholders and their guests must each have their own Fringe Membership Card. And please note that Memberships and Frequent Fringer Cards are non-transferable!

Reminder: Fringe AGM and Program Guide Launch Party!

Sneak peek from the 2018 Program Guide!

Ready or not, the Fringe will come! Come on down to the Backstage Lounge on July 30 for the Program Guide Launch Party at 7:30pm (doors at 7:00pm). And if you attended the 2017 Fringe Festival and activated a Membership, we want to see you at our Annual General Meeting, starting at 6:00pm, just before the Launch Party!

After the AGM, get a first look at what’s happening at the Fringe this year as we launch our 2018 Program Guide! Can you spy with your little eye what our theme and cover art is for this year? Eeny-meeny-miny-moe your way through the shows, Phillips Fringe Bar lineup, workshops, special events, and more! Join us for a throwback to old-school Fringe with Drag Bingo, hosted by the legendary Jaylene Tyme. We have more prizes and surprises in store for you, so don’t miss out on this party!

RSVP now. Please note that Backstage Lounge is accessible for wheelchair and mobility aid users. See you there!

Help the Fringe Out!

Volunteers have been a big part of the Fringe’s success for over three decades now! Photo by Deandra Atmojo.

We recently celebrated hitting an important milestone (200 volunteers) in the lead up to our goal of 500 volunteers and we’re looking for more helping hands for the Festival!

Volunteers make the Fringe a success every year by helping the Festival in different ways: selling tickets for shows, keeping the Phillips Fringe Bar safe and fun, coordinating Front of House activities, and more! Volunteers get a lot of great perks from the Fringe, including a Volunteer Rush Pass, which lets you see any Fringe show that’s not sold out. Check out our volunteer positions to see what role fits you best! And when you’re ready, register on MyVolunteerPage.com or update your profile if you’re a returning volunteer.

And if you want to help out the Fringe but volunteering your time isn’t feasible, you can host an Artist in the comfort of your home from September 4-18! Billet hosts provide touring Fringe Artists a semi-private/private place to sleep, access to a shower and kitchen, and the freedom to come and go as needed. Sign up to host an artist and we’ll match you with someone who fits you and your living space. In return, billet hosts get a Volunteer Rush Pass or 10 Exchange Vouchers (which are good for any regular Fringe performance).

See Theatre All Year Long!

We know you love binging on theatre during the 11-day Fringe, but did you know the Fringe also runs Theatre Wire, which brings you Fringey, independent, and local theatre year-round? And we’ve just announced next season’s shows!

Missed Habitats at the 2017 Fringe? You have one more chance to see them at Pick Plus!

But wait! There’s more! We’ve just added Pick Plus shows to the mix! Pick Plus shows are hand-picked Fringe shows that have been popular in past years or other Fringe Festivals that we just need to see! These one-night-only performances happen in the week following the Fringe Festival in September. You can now include Pick Plus shows as part of your Theatre Wire Package! This year’s Pick Plus shows are50 Shades of Vinyl – A Canadian Parody(formerly known as 50 Shades of Dave), The Birdmann FINALE, Habitats, and Kahlil Ashanti’s Basic Training.

Make room for theatre in your life all year long! Visit TheatreWire.com for more info and make sure to check back in case more shows are added!

The Fringe at the Jessie Awards

Some of our Fringe staff were all dressed up for the Jessies! From left to right: Laura, Jess, and Angie. Photo by Robyn Kurtz.

The Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards celebrate excellence in Vancouver’s professional theatre community. The 36th awards ceremony returned to its theatrical roots, taking place on July 16 at Bard on the Beach in the BMO Mainstage in Vanier Park. We want to congratulate all the Jessie nominees and winners, especially those who are Fringe alumni!

Fringe alumna Chelsea Haberlin, who you may remember from our site-specific program Onsite, and her work with ITSAZOO Productions, took home the award for Outstanding Artistic Creation in Theatre for Young Audiences for her work in Green Thumb Theatre and Neworld Theatre’s Jabber.

Mind of a Snail’s Multiple Organism won awards in the Vancouver and Orlando Fringes, and now they have a Jessie under their belt! They garnered this year’s Critic’s Choice Innovation Award, which awarded two winners for the first time—the other being Universal Limited’s Japanese Problem.

Fringe regular Rohit Chokhani(Bombay Black) was awarded the Vancouver Now Representation and Inclusion Award for his work in “encouraging the inclusion of Indigenous and diverse voices in theatre and dance, and… creat[ing] works of theatre that communicate South Asian perspectives to a wider audience.”

Two Fringe Artists were also recognized for their potential: Tai Amy Grauman, whose show, Her Name Was Mary was part of the 2017 Fringe, garnered the Sam Payne Award for the Most Promising Newcomer. Genevieve Fleming, this year’s Dramatic Works mentor, was awarded the Ray Michal Prize for Most Promising New Director. We’re excited to see more work from them in the future!

Devon More, whose one-woman show Berlin Waltz played at the 2016 Fringe, won the Gordon Armstrong’s Playwright’s Rent Award. Designed to “mark how hard it is to buy precious time to write,” More was nominated by Fringe regular TJ Dawe for her work in coordinating the Way Off Broadway performance series in New Westminster, and for helping other playwriting artists develop their own work. She’s back at the Fringe this year with Flute Loops, a “subatomic pop opera where anything can happen does!”

You can check out the full list of nominees and winners on the Jessies’ website. We’re proud have so many artists use the Fringe as a springboard for their careers, and to see these theatre artists’ achievements honoured!